Award recognizes hospitals that make exceptional efforts to foster better quality of care

Advocate Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn, Illinois becomes the first organization in the country to be certified under The Joint Commission’s new Disease-Specific Care Advanced Certification Program in Heart Failure. Developed in collaboration with the American Heart Association, this certificate of distinction recognizes hospitals that are making exceptional efforts to foster better quality of care and outcomes for heart failure patients.

The Joint Commission’s new Advanced Certification Program in Heart Failure requires organizations to meet the following criteria:

• Meet the standards and performance measurement requirements under The Joint Commission’s Disease-Specific Care Certification program.

• Achieve and sustain for 90 days or more at least 85 percent compliance with the five achievement measures of Get With The GuidelinesSM  - Heart Failure, the American Heart Association’s hospital-based quality improvement program designed to close the treatment gap in cardiovascular disease.

• Collect data on Joint Commission core measures for heart failure and use this data in ongoing performance improvement activities.

Through the use of the standards and quality improvement tools, the Advanced Certification Program in Heart Failure promotes successful efforts in heart failure management, which include a standard method of delivering or coordinating care; implementation of evidence-based clinical practice guidelines; a secure and timely system for sharing information across settings and providers, which safeguards patient rights and privacy; a comprehensive performance improvement program, which uses outcomes data to continually enhance existing treatment plans and clinical practices; and clinical practices, which support patient self-management.

The Joint Commission commends Advocate Christ Medical Center for demonstrating such a high level of patient care,” says Jean Range, M.S., R.N., C.P.H.Q., executive director of Disease-Specific Care Certification, The Joint Commission.  “Achievement of certification signifies that the services at Advocate Christ Medical Center have met the critical elements to achieve long-term success in improving outcomes.  It is the best signal to the community that the quality of care provided is effectively managed to meet the unique and specialized needs of heart failure patients.”

“We have set goals for ourselves to excel in providing care and outcomes for the patients and families who suffer with this epidemic of heart failure,” says Marc A. Silver, M.D., Director of the Heart Failure Insititute, Advocate Christ Medical Center. “Participating in the Heart Failure Advanced Certification process and attaining the certification helps create a matrix to support us along the way. We are most proud to be able to provide such a full spectrum of heart failure services to our community.”

Source: Joint Commission

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